We have considered the best way to welcome a new employee, both from a human/integration point of view and from a professional point of view.
Two key topics:
1. Onboarding: ensuring a successful integration of the new employee, as soon as the decision to recruit him/her is taken. Also provide them with a support person - their buddy - whose mission is to assist them and provide them with advice and information on life at Ermeo.
2. Onboarding : supervising and accompanying the employee to ensure a rapid and qualitative rise in skills:
- With, on the one hand, a structured general framework: resources to build up skills both in Ermeo's internal organisation and in the industrial 4.0 ecosystemSaaS and B2B.
- On the other hand, support to ensure an increase in skills on the job.
In addition to these elements, particular attention must also be paid to the specific means of promoting the integration of the new employee, since everyone is inclined to adapt and feel different.
We therefore promote the culture of feedback and organize frequent points (peer-to-peer, collaborator-manager...).
Let's get to the heart of the matter: the integration of a new employee, even before his first day with us.
First phase of onboarding: integration before arrival
For us, an employee's onboarding does not start when he or she comes through the office door to officially join us.
Indeed, from the first physical interviews of a candidate, we consider that we are probably facing a future member of our team.
The idea is therefore to multiply the number of interlocutors and meetings from the very first interviews.
In the three-step physical process that constitutes recruitment, the candidate comes to meet different members of Ermeo's teams:
- During the first interview, one to several members of his future team come to challenge him on his past experiences
- During the second one, two people from another team come to present the Masterplan. and highlight our values and ambitions
- During the third, we evaluate the fit with the whole team (over coffee, lunch, aperitif...)
So the one who joins our team already knows most of the team. He can also take part in various events organized before his arrival (internal events, meetups...).
We also send him several documents -product sheet or other documents that vary according to his position- that will facilitate his handling of our subjects.
The future collaborator is of course also in contact with his buddy, who acts as a sponsor. More information on the buddy below.
Second phase of onboarding: the welcome kit
The arrival of a new employee is always done according to the rules: from his first day, he can equip himself with multiple goodies branded with the name of his new team. The must-have: Ermeo cap, mug, sweatshirt, polo, tote bag, USB key, notebook, pen, and now a canteen, because we think green!
Third phase of onboarding: breakfast
A first day, in our country, often takes place on Monday.
More than the day after a weekend of evenings, brunches and Netflix with the family, this day is for us always a new beginning, which gives us the opportunity to start the week motivated and aligned with everyone's objectives.
When we arrive on Monday in 206, (meeting room, kitchen, phone box and nap area) everyone gets together, serves tea or coffee, grabs a pastry and gradually settles around the big table, ready for the launch of the Monday Meeting.
What is Monday Meeting? What is it?
In short, it is an opportunity for each cluster to present the most significant events of the past week.
For example, a signed account for Sales, an upcoming event or content for Marketing, or the presentation of a feature for the Engineering team.
We make it as interactive, visual and lively as possible (often against the backdrop of well-chosen music and a rather heterogeneous repertoire: from DaftPunk to Lorie... You need something for everyone...). Sometimes we end up with the results that have gone green as part of the Masterplan.
Before embarking on the presentation of everyone's news, we often have the pleasure of welcoming new employees.
Whoever has just been welcomed in 208 -our office- by his or her buddy, our dear HR Clémence and Pierre, a slightly hyperactive CEO who always has a smile on his or her face, takes his or her place around us.
We introduce ourselves in turn: our first name (or nickname), anecdotes, what we like, what we don't like... (travel, cheese, cats or stuffed animals: freedom of expression runs freely in our country.), and what we do in two words at Ermeo.
Here it is: at this point, the newcomer knows us a little better, the sacred bonds of chocolate bread eaters have been woven in an undeniable way around us, and he begins to feel the kind of atmosphere that will permeate his new pro adventure.
The Monday Meeting will close with the Breaking News of each of them and the draw for six names for the two Lunch Roulettes of the week.
The Lunch Roulettes are an opportunity to meet with non-team members for a lunch, frequently taking place around the famous Fratellinis calzones (no, we don't have a Paid Partnership!).
Fourth phase of onboarding: the buddy
The arrival of each new employee is therefore made in accompaniment. A person always proposes to be the buddy of the "newbie". Call him before his first day, meet him on his arrival for a tour of the premises, introduce him to his office and the main software, explain the key dynamics of Ermeo...
But also take him to lunch on the first day, give him the good tips of the neighborhood, etc..
For us, it is a matter of providing an anchor point, a reference person for such more informal subjects: making sure that the "newbie" feels comfortable.
The buddy will become a real guide, a reference person, trusted by the employee. It generally belongs to another pole, the aim being to create links outside the daily "comfort zone" of each one.
Fifth step: onboarding over three months
This leads to the employee's increased skills on his job and on Ermeo.
Two Trello boards present all the cards that will constitute an employee's onboarding, week after week: cards that include the various actions and people involved, by category and according to a defined time frame.
A specific onboarding and a general onboarding, each at 3 months, allow the collaborator to have no shortage of resources to take on the body the subjects that touch closely or remotely at his post.
The general onboarding is monitored by the buddy, who will remove the name of his newbie from the actions he has performed. (See photo) This table deals with questions such as :
- How to use the Ermeo Connected Operator Platform?
- Where can I find the basic documents?
- How to book holidays or consult your pay slips? What is each team in charge of?
- Who are our customers? The ecosystem of startups around us?
Or, for specific onboarding, led by the manager, all the key steps that will make the employee more and more autonomous on his job, after a week, two, four, twelve.
Everyone is responsible for the successful arrival of a new employee.
It involves giving him all the keys to enable him to master our environment, to be comfortable on his job, and to build relationships with everyone.
If everyone has a role in the success of an onboarding, we also want to give responsibility to the main person concerned in his or her position: he or she will be encouraged to be an actor in his or her onboarding (we think of our value Give you the means to be proud of your work!).
He will also always be encouraged to get involved in different subjects that may interest him (the actions of the Masterplan, the organisation of our internal events...).
A goal: to make every arrival a success!
At Ermeo, we attach great importance to the professional development but also to the personal development of each employee.
Each support is personalised, as it is the result of feedback and action plans specific to each individual.
Let me explain: our resolutions and action plans at 6 months cover both the improvement of know-how and the improvement of life skills and the best embodiment of values. Each employee who joins us will therefore also be able to work on subjects and skills that are outside the scope of their initial work.
In terms of support and benevolence, we believe that our buddy system makes it possible to lay the foundations of the human support and the mutual aid aspect to which we aspire.
Yes, today's newbie will be tomorrow's buddy: because he has been bathed in a climate of support and solidarity, he knows all the more about best practices to reproduce the pattern... we close the circle!
